Records

Referees

Crew Chief

ZAVLANOS, NIKOLAOS, Greece

Referee

PILIPAUSKAS, KESTUTIS, Lithuania

Umpire

KOLAR, ROMAN, Slovenia

The Take

Two teams with different goals in Group C will go against each other on Thursday when Winterthur FC Barcelona visits Eldo Napoli at 20:45 CET. Eldo (3-7) needs to keep winning in order to keep its Top 16 chances alive. Meanwhile, Barcelona (8-2) has already made it to the next round and hopes to keep fighting to become the Group C champion. Barcelona already beat Napoli 91-71 in Palau Blaugrana in November. Juan Carlos Navarro (18.2 ppg., 45.3% 3FG, 91.9% FT), the current Euroleague top scorer, had 20 points to lead his team in victory. It comes as no surprise that Navarro will be Napoli's main obsession in this game, too. With Gianluca Basile (10.6 ppg., 47.6% 3FG) questionable against Napoli due to an ongoing injury, players like Jaka Lakovic (11.1 ppg., 3.8 apg.), Roko-Leni Ukic (4.7 ppg.), Roger Grimau or Rodrigo De La Fuente (5.3 ppg., 46.7% 3FG) could fill the scoring gap and help Navarro. Michel Morandais (9 ppg., 4.6 rpg.) will have the tough mission to stop Navarro, while Tyrone Ellis (9.2 ppg., 3.2 apg.) is set to test his scoring skills against Lakovic and Ukic. Three-point threat Jay Larranaga (5.8 ppg.), aggressive guard Valerio Spinelli (3.8 ppg.) and shooter Matteo Malaventura (5.9 ppg.) are ready to help Napoli in a crucial game. Barcelona could have counted on more power in the middle, but must now start dealing with the absence of big Mario Kasun (11.9 ppg.) for six weeks after he suffered a stress fracture of the fibula. Barcelona cane take stock, then, in Fran Vazquez (3.5 ppg., 1.2 bpg.) recording a triple-double in the Spanish League over the weekend with an amazing 12 blocks. He'll now team with Denis Marconato (6.7 ppg.) and versatile forwards Michalis Kakiouzis (6.7 ppg., 1.4 spg.) and Jordi Trias (6.2 ppg., 5.5 3pg., 2.4 apg.) in trying to help Barcelona break its two-game road losing streak in Group C. They'll go up against Ansu Sesay (9.4 ppg., 46.7% 3FG), who had a Euroleague career-high 20 points against Aris this week as well as centers Mason Rocca (11.1 ppg., 6.3 rpg.) and Alessandro Cittadini (6.1 ppg., 5 rpg.). Even when Barcelona is the favorite to win the game, Napoli is in a make-or-break situation and playing in front of its home fans, so a balanced, thrilling game is expected.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Euroleague.net

Quotes Head Coaches

BUCCHI, PIERO

Eldo Napoli

"It will be a crucial game for our ambitions in the Euroleague. If we take a win we'll fuel our hopes to reach our dream, the qualification to the Top 16, but we know we will face one of the best teams in the continent, with great experience, players and playing system. We will do our best to win and survive."

IVANOVIC, DUSKO

Winterthur FC Barcelona

"This is quite an important game for us in order to fight for the first spot in our group, after we made sure of our place in the Top 16. We beat Eldo in Barcelona quite easily, but this is a team which always fights until the end and they never give up. They tend to play very agressive at home, getting many steals and a lot of fastbreak points. They play usually with four outside players and only one inside. We have to be very focused to prevent them from taking a lot of offensive rebounds. This is a part of our game that we need to improve."

Players

MALAVENTURA, MATTEO

Eldo Napoli

"We're coming off two consecutive losses and our goal is to win for the first time in the new year. We have trust in our chances to reach the Top 16, it would be a dream come true. We face a team full of glory like Barcelona, a very strong team which destiny is going to the Final Four. We have to play at the top of our potential, focused for all the forty minutes, because you cannot do anything wrong against them. We have confidence and we'll fight together to fuel our dream."

KAKIOUZIS, MICHAILIS

Winterthur FC Barcelona

"For the Italian team, this could be their last chance of making the Top 16, so it's a key game and they will do their best. They have won three games and Eldo will be a dangerous team, because they don't want to lose this opportunity. They like the running game and we need to be aware in order to prevent them from playing that way. Unfortunately, we've lost Mario Kasun for several weeks, but our team is strong enough to play well without him. All the players we'll try to do some extra things in order to cover Kasun's absence."

Facing near-elimination on its homecourt on Thursday, Eldo Napoli staged a heroic comeback to down visiting Winterthur FCB by 66-64 and keep its Top 16 hopes alive in Group C. Napoli rallied from 13 points down with 12 minutes to play thanks to an incredible 23-3 run that was good enough to take the win in the closing seconds. Napoli improved to 4-7 and remains tied for sixth place of Group C with Fenerbahce Ulker, both a single victory behind sixth-place Aris TT Bank. On the other hand, Barcelona dropped to 8-3 and endangered its hopes of chasing CSKA Moscow for first place. Michel Morandais was the best scorer for the winners with 23 points. Mason Rocca added a double-double of 15 and 10 boards and Tyron Ellis chipped in 10. For Barcelona, Juan Carlos Navarro was again the best scorer with 21 points and only Jaka Lakovic joined him in double-digits with his 11 points. Barcelona led 39-52 with 12 minutes left to play before Napoli's monster run turned around the game and the team's chances over the last three regular season dates.

Jay Larranaga started off Napoli with a triple and Ansu Sesay added a basket to send the hosts up 5-0. Navarro got Barcelona's first points on a running layup, but Morandais made his first triple a strike to make it 8-2. Lakovic replied from the arc for Barcelona, but Rocca in the low post and Morandais with his second triple made it 13-5. Again, however, Barcelona matched him, this time with Rodrigo De la Fuente burying one from downtown. Morandais had help this time, with Ellis drilling his own triple and Rocca scoring again in the paint for a sudden double-digit advantage, 18-8. Lakovic got 3 points back on one shot, and substitute Denis Marconato made it 18-13. The Barcelona surge continued with another Marconato layup and the eighth triple of the quarter, this one by Gianluca Basile, narrowing the difference to 20-18 after 10 minutes.

Conversely, more than 2 minutes of the second quarter passed with no scoring, until Valerio Spinelli drove to the basket for Napoli. Lakovic answered with his third triple, which sparked Barcelona's biggest move yet. Michalis Kakiouzis put in the next 3 points and Roger Grimau a layup before Basile extended the run to 0-13 with a triple and free trhows that made it 22-30. The longer run, since the middle of the first quarter, was now 4-22 in Barcelona's favor. Morandais tried to revive Napoli with a dunk, but the hosts soon lost Ellis to a wrist injury after he collided Marconato, who made his free throws. Navarro added 2 more and a layup before Vazquez finished the half by dunking Barcelona to a comfortable 27-39 advantage.

The Napoli comeback was delayed as Marconato opened the second half with a layup and Navarro sooned bombed from the perimeter to make it 31-44. The Napoli defense then tightened long enough for Ellis, back on court, to dunk and Morandais to hit a jumper, but Navarro was not done. He sandwiched a pair of new triples around another by Morandais and drove for a layup as Barcelona held onto its 13-point lead, 39-52, through 28 minutes. Napoli still wanted to fight, however. Before the quarter could end, Ellis and Rocca got to the line and hit 2 free throws each before Trepagnier stole and went the length of the court for a dunk to cut the gap almost in half, to 45-52, after 30 minutes.

A layup by Vazquez at the start of the last quarter seemed to steady Barcelona. But then Morandais hit free throws and Ellis a triple from the arc, bringing Napoli fully back into the game at 50-54. Barcelona was suffering now and Rocca took advantage with back-to-back layups that completed an incredible 15-2 run and the comeback by tying the score 54-54. There were 7 minutes left to play. Morandais stealed a ball, but the spanish defence didn't leave an easy shot. Grimau's free throw restored Barcelona's lead, but only until Rocca struck again and Sesay launched a bomb from the corner that thrilled the crowd and forced a timeout by the visitors. It wasn't long before another Barcelona turnover led to Morandais converting from the arc for a 62-55 lead by Napoli with 3 minutes left. Marconato and Kakiouzis shared 3 free throws as Napoli saw Rocca leave with his fifth foul. Morandais steadied the hosts with a layup to make it 64-58 with less than 2 minutes on the clock. Lakovic revived the guests with a basket, and while nerves set in on Napoli's side, Navarro stepped up with a huge triple from the corner to make it 64-63. Alessandro Cittadini went to the line after an offensive rebound to make 1 of 2 free throws, while Lakovic missed both of his, but Marconato grabbed the offensive rebound. Sesay stole for Napoli, but now Ellis also blew 2 at the line, with 7 seconds left. Navarro got the last chance to tie, but missed 1 of his 2 foul shots, sothat when Morandais did the same, Napoli had a miracle comeback win to stay alive in Group C.

Head Coaches

BUCCHI, PIERO

Eldo Napoli

"I think everybody in Napoli will remember the night their team beat Barcelona. And I'm proud to be the coach of this team. I'd like to dedicate this victory to president Maione that built this team from the second division to the Euroleaague levels. This victory boosted our morale and gave us the possibility to continue dreaming of the Top 16. We played a great game against a team like Barcelona which has two Euroleague starting five: one in the ground and another one on the bench."

IVANOVIC, DUSKO

Winterthur FC Barcelona

"This a typical match from my team this year: a first part of the game with great intensity and a good defense and a second part made of inconsistency, lack of intensity that brought us to the defeat against a team like Napoli that showed great strenght until the end. It's a bad night for us as we've lost our chances to get the first place in the standings."

Players

TREPAGNIER, JEFF

Eldo Napoli

"We showed great character and courage tonight. After the second period we knew we couldn't give up and we showed it on the ground. Now the dream is still alive and we want to fight in any match to reach it after this unforgettable night."

BASILE, GIANLUCA

Winterthur FC Barcelona

"We played a two faces game tonight: it happened before this season and we payed this here in Napoli against a team made of good players whith great intensity. The first place has gone, but we still can finish as the best second of all groups."